The present invention relates to a cap for covering all sides of the end of a supporting body of a hammer mill rotor that has a plurality of supporting body ends disposed next to one another and staggered in the direction of rotation of the rotor, with hammer shafts being mounted in the supporting body ends and extending parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotor over the length of the rotor. A respective hammer is mounted, in such a way that it can swing, between each two spaced apart supporting body ends that are disposed parallel to one another.
With hammer mill rotors, such caps are used to reduce the wear at the ends of the supporting bodies that occurs during operation, and to avoid time consuming repairs, such as the welding or sputtering of wear-resistant material onto these supporting body ends.
German Offenlegungsschrift No. 34 38 706 discloses a cap for covering supporting body ends; the side faces of this cap are provided with openings through which the hammer shafts extend in the installed state. With this type of securement, the centrifugal forces that result on the cap during operation are transmitted from the side faces onto the hammer shaft, and from there to the supporting bodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,848 discloses a cap that covers only a portion of the peripheral surface of the supporting body and only the forward supporting body end face as viewed in the direction of rotation of the rotor. Securement of this cap is effected by inserting beads or abutments that are disposed on both sides of a web into corresponding lateral recesses of a socket in the supporting body; when the hammer shaft is installed, it keeps the cap from falling out.
The drawback of these heretofore known caps is that depending upon how the rotor is assembled, the hammer shafts that hold the cap or secure it in position must be entirely or at least partially removed in order to replace the cap. However, such a removal of the hammer shafts is very time consuming and is particularly disruptive if, due to nonuniform wear of the caps, only a single cap is to be replaced and the remaining caps, which have not become worn, also have to be loosened, although they can remain on the rotor.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cap of the aforementioned general type that can be removed and replaced without having to remove the hammer shafts.